New 'Jaws of Life' for Upton, a nickel at a time

UPTON — How do you nickel and dime your way into raising $35,000 for public safety equipment? In Upton, the answer is found in refunded deposits from bottles and cans.

The Fire Department has asked residents to donate their soda and beer cans in a campaign to replace the town's existing "Jaws of Life," setting out a large recycling container with a colorful sign. The low-key bottle and can drive has encouraged philanthropy in 5-cent increments, and the drive is now at more than halfway to its goal.

The last time they raised money for the the hydraulic extrication tool, department supporters went door to door. That was 25 years ago, said Upton Fire Chief Aaron Goodale. "We're still using the same set of tools we bought 25 years ago," he said.

This time, the Upton Fire EMS Association got creative, thinking that appealing for bottles and cans that could be dropped off might be more efficient than going door to door.

Since the campaign began last fall, town residents have dropped off more than 10,000 bottles and cans, Mr. Goodale estimated. A large thermometer sign installed outside the fire station helped spread the word. And several groups and individuals have since chipped in, including the Upton Men's Club.

Almost half of the contributions came in through the work of a 16-year-old, Andrea Matellian, who took charge of a letter campaign, asking residents to contribute $1 for each family member in the house. That alone kicked in about $10,300, Mr. Goodale said.

Andrea, a student at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, mailed 2,700 letters to every resident in town as part of a youth leadership project. She hand-addressed the envelopes and included a return envelope to encourage the donations. Her letter emphasized the need for modern extrication tools.

"I knew from my community service I would want to do something with cars," she said. "All the kids at school are starting to drive."

In addition to the service projects, the bottles and cans keep coming.

Fire personnel regularly find the recycling container outside the station full, with bags of bottles and cans placed neatly beside it. People are dropping off empties overnight, on weekends, "all the time," said Mr. Goodale. He estimated the contributions add up to $800 in heavy weeks.

The metal recycling container was provided by E.L. Harvey & Sons, which modified it to allow donors to drop bottles directly into the bin through a chute. A second container holds bagged, sorted bottles and cans. Once a month, a recycling center in Milford sends a truck to pick up the redeemable materials, and writes a check to the association, Mr. Goodale said.

"It sure beats going doo to door selling lottery tickets," he said.

The Upton department already has two sets of extrication tools, but they are at least 25 years old and can no longer easily cut through the stronger frames of modern vehicles, Mr. Goodale said. They're also made by two different manufacturers, and incompatible with each other. The department wants tools with components that can be carried by any of its trucks and vehicles, according to Mr. Goodale.

He and other supporters conceived of the returnable bottle fundraiser in the fall, and initially thought it might take a year or two. Instead, the first set of extrication tools should be purchased soon, with a second to follow once the remaining cash is in hand.

They could have asked for traditional funding through the town budget. But the department had already asked for and received a refurbished ladder truck and additional personnel this year, the fire chief said.

The need for the upgraded "Jaws" is visible in the traffic heading through Upton on two major routes: Route 140 and Hopkinton Road. The latter, which connects Upton, Northbridge, Grafton and surrounding towns to Interstate 495, has 12,000 cars a day, Mr. Goodale said. That's more than the town's population, which is about 7,600 people.

The new extrication tools will allow firefighters to more efficiently enter vehicles that have been damaged or crushed in crashes. Each set will include hydraulic cutters, for getting through doors and frames, and rams, for pushing out dashboards. The department will keep the old sets, as extras.

"We need better cutters," Mr. Goodale said. "They're bigger, stronger, they're capable of doing more than our current tools. When we're doing (extrications), time is of the essence."

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